News
Good afternoon and welcome to your Unbound Daily Briefing for Sunday 28th June - topics we will be covering today include:
- US Threat of 100% Tariffs Over Digital Tax Policy
- CPTPP Accession Process Ramps Up a Notch
US Threat of 100% Tariffs Over Digital Tax Policy
In a post on US social media platform Truth Social on Friday evening, the US President Donald Trump railed against European intentions to further expand on already partially implemented digital services taxes, where US companies would find themselves liable for these additional taxes.
The difficulty with this statement, is that multiple European countries including the UK are already implementing such taxes on US firms, which would suggest that those countries would soon be liable for a 100% goods tariff on all exports to the US, if the President is to implement this policy to the letter.
The departure of the UK from the EU has thus far allowed the UK to avoid some of the retaliatory measures that the US President has implemented, against what he sees as unfair trade practices. However the continued behaviour of the UK following EU approaches even when it doesn't need to, will soon end that differentiation. If the UK continues to behave like an EU member state on the world stage, then it will no doubt start to be treated as one by other countries such as the USA.
- Read the BBC article on the Trump statement
- Read the Guardian article on the Trump statement
CPTPP Accession Process Ramps Up a Notch
The 12 members of the CPTPP - which now includes the UK - have put out a joint statement through the Singaporean government, stating that they have assessed the applications of three new countries against their Auckland Criteria for membership and that they have all passed. Indonesia, The Philippines and the United Arab Emirates are now all cleared to commence negotiations to accede to the CPTPP. This follows Costa Rica having concluded the accession negotiations in recent weeks, and Uruguay being part way through the negotiation process.
